The second paragraph of the declaration is one of the most amazing. Set of phrases
ever written it is the creed of what makes America and now what makes the
aspirations of many people around the world let's just read that first sentence
which of the second paragraph which is just. Awesome it we hold these truths to be
self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights and among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of
happiness men are created equal that they are now by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness
let's start even with the word WE who's We weird says is the. The American
colonies now gathering as the United States of America but they're basically white
males everybody at that convention is
a white male Most of them land old Mares So what the arc of American history shows
is that word we began over the course of decades and then centuries to include
more and more people eventually it includes freed slaves eventual it includes women
but that's
a narrative of American history is Who are we that have these truths is self-evident
that we're all equal now it's also interesting the phrase self-evident you know
this is something that comes from the. Rationality of the
scientific era we were and this is an age right after Isaac Newton has made
everything in the universe rational through scientific laws and it also comes from
some of the philosophers especially David Hume that there are just certain things
that are self-evident so that's an important concept that they're not appealing to
anybody else to say you know what are these truths they're saying this is just our
rationality tells us this is true but then they say all men are created equal.
Now they say men back then men was supposed to be
a phrase that was more inclusive than just Mayo or
a man on the right is like mankind to some extent but then again you know at least
Jefferson he owned slaves and women they won't necessarily given the right to vote
so even though they mean man sort of like mankind they also really generally mean
man at this point and once again this is where the American Now is it starts and
fortunately that phrase gets expanded over time as to what they mean right right
look at the phrase created equal what does that really mean well first No it
doesn't mean that people are always equal at
a certain point in life Jefferson learns
a whole lot of property and Franklin is quite rich as
a printer and different people have different statuses in life but they're saying
that in
a fundamental political way. We all start off we're created equal
we have certain rights that you just can't take away from us whether we're rich or
poor whatever those unalienable rights are life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness but I'm guessing it's also doing it the king because royalty kind of the
one underlying assumption is that it's inherited and that you were created better
off right and Thomas Payne who is
a pamphleteer has just written. Just written this document common sense and that's
helped inspire everybody and at the heart of the document common sense is that
there is no divine right of kings Divine Right of Kings was
a British concept which went God made certain people more equal or better than
others and the king was you know by divine right had these powers and were
saying no the Kings don't have any more powers Ben Franklin was very much of that
way which is he hated the notion of aristocracy that some people were born noble
and some people were born heiress to Craddock and some people were born royal and
whatever but think about it for
a moment what was Thomas Jefferson thinking Guyland
a lot of slaves what was he thinking when he writes is amazing for
a all men are created equal. You know I think he was very conflicted I mean here's
a guy who did not end up even freeing most of his slaves you know in his lifetime
and yet he could write these inspiring words and if you read about Jefferson you
know that was the fundamental conflict and it's a conflict that we as
a nation have been wrestling with and as
a slave owner he but he also knew them very well he knew them as as human beings
perhaps he had fathered children as one of the slaves Ben Franklin is interesting
because early on in life he had two households slaves who he didn't really trade
a slaves with they were his household servants and he allowed the advertising of
slavery in the Pennsylvania is that the newspaper that he published but he will
realize after he writes these words are created equal he realizes how about horror
and that he has to his own notion that people are created equal and of course he
died by then freed as slaves but he becomes
a president of the Society for the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania as
a way of trying to make up for the fact that he had erred he had he had been wrong
when he was young to tolerate the institution of slavery and he becomes an
abolitionist of course John Adams from the very beginning was an abolitionist and
this is important for people to realize you know you take
a kind of American History class it seems like obviously everything comes to
a head right leading up to the Civil War But this was already starting to become an
issue a moral issue
a philosophical issue even at the at the founding of the country and
a political issue as well because if you want Jefferson and you want for genuine
end you know the reason John Adams he was
a great abolitionist but there were no plantations there was no cotton when Granny
matter to sort but if you were a cotton farmer or you know
a plantation owner in Virginia you tended to own slaves and it becomes
a great political issue with the. Slaveholding States have to be brought into this
Union we see that conflict at the concert when the constitution is written you know
. Eleven years later. They're still having this conflict on what do we do about
slavery it will continue for another seventy something years yeah if you want to
say that it was totally resolved by the Civil War and there will be some who will
say that that was the original stain on this unbelievably beautiful phrase which is
that all men are created equal Yeah very cool.